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The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• The progress of revelation has an organic aspect in which the identity of the germ contained in the earliest mention of a theme continues in the buildup of that theme as the same seminal idea takes on a more developed form in later revelation.

• The analogy of faith thus does not establish additional meanings but collects those already present in a rudimentary or seminal form and now expresses these more fully by further exegesis in the progress of revelation.

The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• Definiteness.

• Our Lord did warn us that, unlike Moses, a certain opaqueness, or enigmatic quality, would be attached to what the other prophets had to say.

• This is not due to a lack of precision on their part or on the part of the divine Revealer. Rather, it has to do more with things like “prophetic perspective,” “corporate solidarity,” and a blending of such temporal aspects as the here and now, the “already” with the “not yet” types of disclosures to be found in this kind of literature.

The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• “Prophetic perspective” occurs quite frequently in the OT prophets.

• It is the phenomenon of blending together both the near and the distant aspects of the prediction in one and the same vision.

• Thus Joel predicts that as a result of the people’s response to the prophet’s summons to repent, God would reverse the devastation brought on by the locust plague, the contemporary manifestation of the Day of the Lord, by sending rain showers immediately (Joel 2:23).

The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• However, he would also send such a downpour of the Holy Spirit that it would affect everyone (vv. 28-29).

• This latter aspect was realized only later—in part, at Pentecost (Acts 2:16).

• Yet, it too awaits a full and final realization at the second coming of Christ (Joel 2:30-31).

• Here is one of the aspects of prophecy that adds difficulty to its interpretation.

The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• Some have referred to this same phenomenon as prophetic foreshortening.

• The common illustration is that of two distant mountain peaks that give little hint to the viewer as to how much distance lies between the two.

• In the same way, interpreters looking across the corridor of time tend to see later events connected with the original context.

The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• OT prophets thus tended to see the first coming of our Lord as blending with events connected with his second coming.

• Another way to illustrate this blending of the near and the distant aspects of prophecy is to picture the prophet looking through the sights of a gun barrel.

• The sight on the rifle closest to his eye lines up with the sight out on the end of the barrel; in exactly the same way he is aware of the near fulfillment(s) and the way that they participate in the ultimate fulfillment.

The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• However, the interpreter must be careful to note that even though there may be a multiple number of fulfillments, in the prophet’s mind they are united together as one sense and meaning, since all the fulfillments participate in the organic unity and wholeness to which each member of the future enactments belongs.

• This outlook on prophecy is known as inaugurated eschatology.

• Such an outlook has an “already-fulfilled” and a “not-yet fulfilled” aspect for many of the predictions in both the OT and NT.

The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• Accordingly, many antichrists had already come, some were currently on the scene, but the final antichrist would put in his appearance at the end of the age according to several passages, but particularly 1 John 2:18.

• This compares well with 1 John 4:3: “This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”

• Likewise, Elijah the prophet had ministered and would yet come again, but John the Baptist also had come in the “spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17).

The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• The Characteristics of Biblical Prophecy

• Nevertheless, God would once again send “the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes” (Ma!. 4:5).

• Jesus, of course, confirmed this same understanding when he taught in Matthew 11:14 that “if you are willing to accept it, [ the Baptist) is the Elijah who is to come.”

• Jesus later added in Matthew 17:11, “To be sure, Elijah is coming and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished.”